Nivlac's guide on Alchemy

What to do once you're here:
Funny thing is theres really only 3-4 recipes out of all the alchemy recipes that are grindable...
all recipes can be found here :http://dhdb.ivyro.net/Eg/main.php?id=152&chp=60
Alchemy recipes are all npc recipes so london= john dee. venice= Paracelsus

R1: 10 red ore+3mercury+sealof salamander-> 1-2 red ointment recipe in venice
saltpeter is in machi or r8 collection in landing point west of alexandria, Egypt north coast. mandrake is r6 collection in landing pt south of bengahzi. red ore is r2 collection in tunis

now start convert your ointments on the color wheel

R4: 1 white+10 gold+5 rare book->1 red ointment recipe in London
R4: 1 red+10 gold +5 rare books-> 1 black ointment Recipe in London
R4: 1 black +10 gold + 10 salt-> 1 white ointment Recipe in Venice
Rare books is r1: 2 paper +1 western book. Recipe in Venice
How to save money: to get the gold, go collect gold dust in the caribs (shows in santiago and Jamaica after small investment) and do r13 casting: 3gold dust->3 gold bars recipe in habana (shows after about 1mil of investing). This makes each gold bar about 1-3k each.
If you're running out of money/ other reasons, do Tarot cards until the exp runs dry (up until r4ish). it'll take much much longer but you'll be in the green somewhat

Keep pushing till r10! this is where having a +1 alchemy aide would help. (still looking for better r7-9 recipe [tell me if you see one])

Advanced Alchemy guide
congrats! you made it to r10 alchemy. Theres plenty to do here so grab an alchemy bench (recipe in venice) and alchemy kiln (recipe in london) and start chugging away.
go buy a processed lumber book. plunderable off maroona fleet (full purple sails only) east of nassau. Or at your local book dealer
(Recipes in Venice)

r10: basic lab bench ( you can continue using the lab bench recipes for r11 and r12 since you get a hefty 20exp per bench, but they do take a lotta master caprentry tools)
30 master carpentry tools(MCTs), 40 experiment files(made from steel in the making experiment apparatus book in cario), 1 processsed lumber-> 1 basic lab bench

wonderful thing is these days white ore is so readily available at the newfoundland coast, so youre in luck! Also if you get bored, try the kiln recipes in London. Grab some caustic lime, clay, and sand. Harder to do a lot of since there is no lime book, you need to convert boulders into lima in azores. but hey its better than having benches come out of your ear?

alternatives

r1-2: use r1 rare books: 2 paper+1 western book-> rare book. western book in lisbon or amsterdam. rare books are staple items in many alchemy recipes, so if you use this method, stock up on them. you'll thanks yourself later.

r3+: as Montador pointed out r3: 2 clay-> 0-2 alchemy pots is a great way to lvl up especially if you have a farm. when i first wrote this clay wasnt out yet
however its still considered an alternative recipe because not everyone has clay and it can only be obtained through the mine in the farm (but everyone can collect items for rare books and gold)

Please note: this guide was written by Nivlac and full credit goes to Nivlac I, Dajan3 only published it to this wiki.